The Convention signed by Poland thirteen years ago, provides basic rules concerning issues such as the treatment of the human genome, scientific research and transplantation. One of the crucial points included in the Convention is the treatment of the human embryos – according to article 18 of the Convention if the law allows research on embryos in vitro, it shall ensure adequate protection of the embryo. Moreover, the Convention prohibits the creation of human embryos for research purposes.
On 7 April 2008 Prime Minister created a group that would manage the issues concerning the Biomedical Convention. In its report the group opted for the ratification of the Convention if certain conditions are fulfilled. Moreover the group advocated the creation of a special bioethical council that, among others, would initiate the debate concerning questions of bioethics and biotechnology. Despite the recommendation, no further steps were taken.
In relation to the above, the Helsinki Foundation for Human submitted a letter to the Polish Prime Minister on 15 September 2010 expressing its concern of the non-ratification of the Biomedical Convention. In the view of a lack of necessary law in Poland in this respect, the Convention would thus guarantee certain level of protection. At the same time it would give the possibility of introducing wider measure with regard to the application of biology and medicine.
On 12 November 2010, Foundation received a response to its intervention from the Ministry of Justice. According to the information provided the lack of ratification is caused by the discrepancy between the guarantees provided in the Conventions and the possibilities of their enforcement in the light of the Polish law.
The Ministry indicated that the group on 7 April 2008, due to a lack of compromise, failed to come up with a conclusive statement that could be of use when ratifying the Convention. However it pointed to the necessity of introducing various changes to different branches of the Polish law, often falling outside the competences of the Ministry of Justice.
Furthermore, on 8 December 2009, another group was created in order to manage the implementation of the directives 2004/23EC, 2006/17/EC and 2006/86/EC and the Biomedical Convention. The Minister of Justice was not a member of this group. However the Under-secretary Dzialuk mentioned in the letter to the Foundation legislative projects concerning the implementation of the Directive 2004/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells and the Commission Directive 2006/86/EC of 24 October 2006 implementing Directive 2004/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards traceability requirements, notification of serious adverse reactions and events and certain technical requirements for the coding, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells.
At the moments, the government is unable to say when exactly the Convention will be ratified, since it decided to first introduce a number of legislative changes to the Polish legislation that would adjust it to the requirements of the Convention and regulate the biomedical issues. Only after this process is completed, the government will be able to ratify the Convention together with making all the necessary reservations.
